


Just Breathe

by asexualjuliet



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Steve Harrington is a Damn Good Babysitter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-24
Updated: 2019-11-24
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:46:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21549349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asexualjuliet/pseuds/asexualjuliet
Summary: Lucas has a panic attack.
Relationships: Steve Harrington & Lucas Sinclair
Comments: 19
Kudos: 155





	Just Breathe

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [lovers in a dangerous time](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21526765) by [diogxnes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/diogxnes/pseuds/diogxnes). 



> Inspired by this sentence in decrescendo’s newest fic, “lovers in a dangerous time”:
> 
> “She never calls him after nightmares like Dustin sometimes does, never fumblingly asks about panic attacks the way Lucas did once.”
> 
> Parts of this were also vaguely inspired by “seven-eleven” by nosrav, but ao3 won’t let me tag two different works as my inspo.
> 
> Hope you enjoy!!

It’s not like Steve sleeps much these days, so he thinks he has the right to be a little pissed when the phone starts ringing. 

It is tired o’clock in the morning, it’s dark as hell out, and Steve really _really_ doesn’t want to get the phone. 

Then again, all of his friends are children, and he can’t just leave one of them hanging like that, so he groans and picks it up. 

“H’llo?” he says groggily, hoping upon hope that it’s not something important. 

“Steve?” says the voice on the other side of the phone, and it’s small and scared, missing all of its usual confidence. 

“Lucas? You okay?” Steve asks, because out of all the kids, Lucas is definitely not the first one he’d expect to call his house at god-knows-when o’clock. 

“No, I don’t—” the kid takes a deep breath. “I don’t know what’s happening.”

Lucas’ voice is full of fear, and Steve’s heart aches for him. 

This explanation, however, is vague as hell. 

“Did you have a nightmare?” Steve asks, because that’s the only reason he’s ever gotten a call past midnight. 

“No,” says Lucas quietly. “I can’t fall asleep, I just—I think I’m freaking out.”

“Okay. Okay,” says Steve. “Is there anything you’re freaking out about in particular?” he asks, because Lucas is definitely about to cry, and Steve has no goddamn idea what to do. 

“I don’t—I don’t _know,”_ the kid says, and Steve can _hear_ the tears he’s trying to blink back. “I just— _shit_ —I feel all—all shaky and it’s kinda like I can’t breathe? And I feel kinda sick, like I might throw up, and Steve, I’m _freaking out.”_

“Yeah, yeah, I got that,” says Steve, which he realizes is not at all helpful, and he’s about to say something else when Lucas starts crying. 

And shit, Lucas might be the only one of the kids Steve’s never seen cry. He’s too strong, too put-together, too proud to cry, but here he is, on the phone with Steve Harrington, bawling his goddamn eyes out. 

“Shit, Lucas, it’s okay,” says Steve. “It’s okay, just—just breathe, okay?”

“I _can’t,”_ says Lucas. “Steve, I _can’t.”_

And his voice is so _helpless,_ Steve can barely stand to listen to it.

But it’s Lucas. And he’s one of Steve’s kids, and no matter what, Steve is gonna be there for him. 

“Lucas,” he says gently, “I think you might be having a panic attack.”

Those are the words Nancy had used once, when Steve had gotten all shaky and nauseous looking at the Christmas lights outside her house. The feelings from back then certainly match what Lucas is describing now. 

“I don’t—I don’t get those,” Lucas says, but the quiver in his voice says something different. 

“I know, buddy, but there’s a first time for everything,” Steve says. “Just—just breathe. Just breathe, Lucas. Listen to my voice”

“Okay,” the kid says, and Steve hears him take a shaky breath. 

“That’s good. That’s good, you’re okay. It’s okay. You’re okay.”

They go on like this until Lucas’ breaths become steady and even. “I’m okay,” says Lucas after a bit. “I’m—I’m okay.”

“Okay,” says Steve. “What’s going on, kid?”

“I don’t know,” Lucas admits. “I just—I freaked.”

“That sucks, man,” says Steve, at a loss for better words. 

Lucas laughs slightly. “Yeah.”

There’s a silence. Steve doesn’t know what to say. 

“Steve?” asks the kid, hesitantly. 

“Yeah?”

“Is that gonna happen to me again? Where I—where I feel like that?”

More than anything, Steve wants to wrap the kid in a hug and keep any harm from coming to him. 

But he knows he can’t. 

So all he says is “I don’t know.”

Silence falls over both of them again until Lucas speaks up. 

“Does it happen to you?” He asks, and Steve’s not a fan of talking about his fucked-up life, but it’s the least he can do for one of the kids. 

So he takes a deep breath and tells Lucas the truth. 

“Sometimes. I don’t—I don’t know, it’s just, y’know, if something freaks me out, like—” Steve pauses. “Like sometimes I’ll see Christmas lights? Or we’ll have to play baseball in gym and I’ll just—God, that sounds stupid.”

“No, it doesn’t,” Lucas says. “Jonathan and Mrs. Byers don’t put Christmas lights up, either.”

“They’ve been through shit, though,” Steve tells him. “I showed up at the last minute after trying to beat Jonathan up and getting my ass kicked.”

“You’ve got a right to be scared,” Lucas says, and it hits Steve that Lucas is now the one comforting him. 

“You, too,” he tells the kid. 

There’s a silence. 

“Yeah. Sorry, I heard you. I nodded.”

Steve smiles. “You good?”

“Yeah. I’m gonna go to sleep now,” Lucas says. 

“Okay. Call me if you need anything,” Steve tells him. 

“Sure,” Lucas says. 

“‘Night, kid,” Steve says. 

“Goodnight,” Lucas replies, and Steve’s about to hang up the phone when he says “Steve?”

“Yeah?” Steve asks, ready and willing to spend another hour on the phone if it means helping Lucas. 

“Thanks,” the kid says, and Steve can hear the genuine thankfulness in his voice.

Steve can’t help but smile. 

“Shit, kid, you’re gonna make me soft.”

“I think that ship has already sailed,” Lucas points out, and Steve silently agrees. 

“Go to sleep, shithead,” he says instead. 

“‘Night,” says Lucas. 

“‘Night,” replies Steve. 

The phone beeps when Steve hangs it up, and the night falls quiet. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!
> 
> All mistakes are my own, please let me know if you see any!
> 
> Kudos/Comments are greatly appreciated!


End file.
